Homewood High graduate and previous Oak Mountain head varsity coach Grace Burgess has recently taken the role of Homewood’s head varsity volleyball coach. After a rocky end to the season last year resulting in head coach Andie Freedmen resigning, Burgess is already working to transform the program.
Burgess played volleyball for Homewood under Carol Chesnutt and it has been her dream to return to HHS to coach.
She continued her volleyball career at LaGrange College for four years before returning back to the Birmingham metro area. She started coaching club volleyball and then became JV head coach at Spain Park for three years, Thompson head JV coach for four years, and assistant and head varsity coach for Oak Mountain before returning to Homewood.
Burgess was pleased about returning back to Homewood.
“As an alumna, I always had my eye on what was happening here,” Burgess said. “It had been on my mind since I was at Thompson.”
This wasn’t the first time Burgess was considered for the coaching role at HHS, however.
“A few years ago when the job first opened I just wasn’t ready to accept a head coaching position,” Burgess said. “I didn’t feel like it was the right time without any head coaching experience. So when the little birdies started chirping about this job being open, I got in touch with the right people and we went from there.”
Burgess spent her first week observing the team and sticking to their schedule. Her second full week she began to let the team get to know her and implement her practice schedule for the remainder of the year.
“I wanted them to know who I am, how I run things and my expectations,” Burgess said. “They have been so willing to adapt and work hard and they are just a joy every day.”
Burgess wants to establish a new culture for the volleyball team where they work hard to achieve their goals of making the Final Four while also fostering an environment where everyone is approachable and communicative, something junior and outside player Abby Pryzbyz was extremely appreciative of.
“I think it is going to be a very good change for Homewood volleyball,” Pryzbyz said. “It has brought a lot of good energy and I think our work ethic is going to be a lot better. We are ready to have fun and grow as athletes and people.”
The 2023 season was a frustrating one for the players, as they dealt with difficult coaching problems and as a result, felt the team dynamic slipping.
The hiring process began after Freedman resigned from coaching which led to her leaving Homewood altogether.
Junior and setter Izzy Knudsen was one of the girls who played a large role in advocating for the team.
“We all went to [principal Joel Henneke] and expressed our feelings about what was going on,” Knudsen said.
In the period before Burgess was hired, Chet Walker took over the program.
“He was such an awesome person,” Knudsen said. “He taught us different leadership skills from different sports he was involved with, and since we had been secluded for so long with Freedman’s policies it was nice to be included in Homewood athletics as a whole.”
As the hiring process started, players were asked to provide input and take part in the interviewing process. Junior Ella Serotsky played a large role in the this process and sat in on the coaching interviews. Pryzbyz said the whole team helped come up with questions that Serotsky could ask coaching candidates.
“We were told a little bit about who would be on the interview committee, and we were able to help Ella come up with some questions so that all of our opinions could be included,” Pryzbyz said.
When all was said and done, Burgess was selected for the new head coaching position.
The team is already looking up and ready for next season amidst all of these changes.
“All of the upcoming seniors are really excited to make a big change,” Knudsen said. “We all want to improve the program to the best of our abilities and are excited after all we went through last year.”
